Wisconsin — On Friday, Planned Parenthood Federation of American and In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda released new research showing that 1,274,000 women of reproductive age in Wisconsin could lose access to abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. The report precedes hundreds of events planned across the country and in Wisconsin to Rally for Abortion Justice. According to the Red Alert Report, abortion access is at risk in 26 states including Wisconsin. More than 36 million women, half of the women of reproductive age (18-49) in the United States, are at risk of losing access to abortion.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court turned its back on nearly 50 years of precedent, allowing Texas’s six-week abortion ban to take effect and rendering Roe v. Wade effectively meaningless for many Texans. On December 1, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case about Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban that could overturn Roe v. Wade, potentially making abortion a criminal act in Wisconsin and putting abortion access at risk across the nation.
Wisconsin is one of nine states in the country with a criminal abortion law still in place that could go immediately into effect if Roe is overturned. Wisconsin’s law 940.04 would ban abortion at any point in pregnancy with no exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the woman. Abortion in Wisconsin is already a right in name only for far too many people. With nearly a dozen restrictions already in place and only three locations where abortion is available, people struggle to access abortion. These restrictions fall hardest on Black, Latino and Indigenous people in Wisconsin with low incomes, and people living in rural areas.
Statement from Mike Murray, Executive Director Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin
“Deciding if or when to become a parent is one of the most personal and life-changing decisions many people will make. We don’t want politicians to make these incredibly personal decisions for us or the people we care about, yet that is what is happening in Texas and here in Wisconsin.
We are witnessing the greatest threat to abortion access in nearly 50 years. Unless we act now to repeal Wisconsin’s criminal abortion ban, people could lose the ability to access the health care they need.
This is a wakeup call to come together to protect and support our friends and family members’ ability to decide if or when they become a parent.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin is committed to fighting to protect access to this essential care – no matter what.”
For information about the Red Alert Report and other Wisconsin specific abortion information click HERE for links to information in PPAWI’s media kit.
